


Knight In Shining Armor

by fictorium



Category: Friday Night Lights
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-07-09
Updated: 2010-07-09
Packaged: 2017-10-10 11:24:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 977
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/99223
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fictorium/pseuds/fictorium





	Knight In Shining Armor

  
Title: Knight In Shining Armor  
Rating: PG13  
Author: [](http://lauriestein.livejournal.com/profile)[**lauriestein**](http://lauriestein.livejournal.com/)   
Pairing: Eric/Tami Taylor

Prompt:  
Friday Night Lights; Tami Taylor; _Speak louder and prouder and hide my love, but it spills out.  
_For [](http://soaked-in-stars.livejournal.com/profile)[**soaked_in_stars**](http://soaked-in-stars.livejournal.com/) who is the bestest and overlooks the fact that I don't speak Texas and don't entirely remember the canon beginnings of Coach and Mrs. T.

_  
It's just a cigarette_

Boys don't like good girls, that's what Tami's friends tell her, and so what else can she believe? She wears mini skirts under the sensible blue one her mom insisted on for school, and as soon as she sees the school gates, the frumpy skirt is history, shoved into her bag with the homework she just never seems to start anymore.

Shelley threatens to tell when she sees Tami smoking in the park with Milly and Katy, but Tami hasn't kept her little sister in line all these years without knowing exactly how to shut her. It costs her a frosted pink lipstick and her second-favorite shirt, but Momma won't know and Tami won't get grounded. It's worth it.

So, in a way, that's how it all starts.

It's how Tami starts making out with boys at the parties she sneaks out to, even the ones she doesn't really like, but guys notice a girl with boobs in a tight dress, so what else can she do? She sticks to Coke at first, confident that her personality is enough. If Tami ever feels that she doesn't look cool enough, she can always spark up another Marlboro Light, and it seems to do the trick.

_But it's just one drink_

And when they put it like that, these handsome boys with their footballer's bodies, it's really kind of stupid to refuse. She's a lady, of course, so they let her drink vodka that her Momma won't smell on her breath. Daddy probably wouldn't have minded, since he's probably pickling in a vat of bourbon somewhere, God knows he hasn't been home in a few years.

She impresses them, the way she used to impress her English teachers, because unlike the other girls she doesn't cough or splutter every time she takes a shot. It takes six before she throws up, which is apparently better than most of the guys managed. Maybe her daddy gave her something worthwhile after all, if it's gonna make her popular.

So, instead of ballet class she gives up her Saturday mornings to hangovers. There are fights about not going to church, and her Momma should probably know the signs when she sees them, but Shelley's a handful too, and at least Tami isn't getting herself in any real trouble.

_Oh my God, you're still a virgin?_

Tami doesn't remember signing up to this competition, but there's this insane race among the girls to be the first to put out. They promise abstinence at school and spend their evenings in their cars with boyfriends, rounding the bases faster than anyone in the Major Leagues ever did.

She remembers what the magazines say, and the guidance teacher who comes in once a week to tell them that sex before marriage is a sin, but Bruce tells her she's pretty and well, she's kinda been leading him on for weeks now, so in the backseat of his Buick, Tami decides to get it over with.

God, had he always been so damn big? The beer tastes sour in his sloppy kisses, and Tami is finding it hard to breathe, but not from excitement. She tries to think of what the girls have discussed in shrieks and giggles and moves her hands in what she hopes is the right way.

Bruce isn't rough on purpose, but it _hurts_ and Tami wants to cry almost the whole time. This isn't magical, this cannot be the big deal that everyone has been going crazy about. It's a hot, sticky summer and Tami realizes now that she can never take this back.

On Monday, when Bruce pins her panties to the noticeboard, she feels sick. The rumors fly, and she figures they were about everyone else too, but she never cared to listen then. Her friends treat it as one big joke, so she smokes under the bleachers to avoid the classes where people whisper about her. It turns out that her friends were just trying to act cool, and she's the first one amongst them to give it up. It seems like every guy in the school has her down as an easy lay, so while she still goes to the parties, Tami drinks real fast until she's ready to pass out in a quiet corner.

Until one morning, she's woken up in a big old ranch house she doesn't recognize, by a boy whose dark hair is too damn long. The room looks like a liquor store blew up in it, and the inside of Tami's head isn't much better.

But this boy, he talks to her real soft and offers to drive her home, since her friends have long since disappeared. He stops for coffee and the best donut she's ever had in her life, and they sit in his truck like they've known each other for years. They talk about school, he goes to one all the way across town, which is probably why she's never seen him before.

It isn't until he's pulling into her yard that Tami thinks to ask his name. Tami hops out of the truck with a little awkwardness and the cuteness of his smile burned into her memory. As he's reversing out again, she suddenly feels recovered enough to yell; she has to say something, she can't let him just slip away like that.

"Thank you!"

Eric waves, treats her to another smile, and heads off down the dusty road.

It isn't the last time she sees him.  



End file.
